Upgrade to 26.03 failed, then reboot also failed !?

jhag

Hello
I have a SG4860 that has is working correctly for 10+ years
This I try to update from 25.11 to 26.03, but it seems to fail, and then I try to reboot it, but the process is now freezing very early.
Connecting to the console, all I can see is the following:

SeaBIOS (version SageBIOS-20170918_115655-localhost.localdomain)

iPXE (http://ipxe.org) 00:14.0 C100 PCI2.10 PnP PMM+7FB7AF80+7FADAF80 C100
iPXE (http://ipxe.org) 00:14.1 C200 PCI2.10 PnP PMM 7FB7AF80 7FADAF80 C200
iPXE (http://ipxe.org) 00:14.2 C300 PCI2.10 PnP PMM 7FB7AF80 7FADAF80 C300
iPXE (http://ipxe.org) 00:14.3 C400 PCI2.10 PnP PMM 7FB7AF80 7FADAF80 C400

Press F12 for boot menu.

Any hint about what happened? about what I can do?

patient0

@jhag if you press F12, can you see the disk? Right now it seems that it tries to boot using the network cards.

Either the boot order is mixed up or if it is running from the eMMC storage then that has maybe failed.

jhag

@patient0 thank you for your quick answer.
Yes, F12 is responding (if I hit it rapidly). Here is what I see:

Press F12 for boot menu.

Select boot device:

1. USB MSC Drive Generic Ultra HS-COMBO 1.98
2. iPXE (PCI 00:14.0)
3. iPXE (PCI 00:14.1)
4. iPXE (PCI 00:14.2)
5. iPXE (PCI 00:14.3)
6. Payload [setup]

Booting order was the default one.
Seems to me that internal storage has failed ...

patient0

@jhag searching the forum for 'sg4860', the first entry seem to be the eMMC[1], access via USB bus[2]. What do you see if you manually select 1. to boot from?

You'll be able to install a mSATA if you're up for it:

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/sg-4860/msata-installation.html#

[1]https://forum.netgate.com/post/1027749
[2]https://forum.netgate.com/post/1028401 (later in the same thread)

jhag

@jhag searching the forum for 'sg4860', the first entry seem to be the eMMC[1], access via USB bus[2]. What do you see if you manually select 1. to boot from?

Same freezing behavior.

You'll be able to install a mSATA if you're up for it:

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/sg-4860/msata-installation.html#

Why not, I could give a try.
But how can I get get the installation package for this old appliance ?
The $0 installer image seems to be available only for recent one.

patient0

@jhag the 4860 is a standard x86-64 computer with a coreboot bios. You will be able to use the standard am64 iso/img.

stephenw10

Yup the Net Installer memstick image works on the 4860.

patient0

@stephenw10 ah, sure not iso, makes sense.

stephenw10

The ISO may work in an external optical drive. I've never tested that!

jhag

I have prepared a USB stick with an installation package and tried it: I successfully reinstalled pfSense 25.11.1.
Then I restored original configuration, and SG-4860 is ready to use.

So, there was no hardware problem?

I will retry the upgrade to 26.03.01 and keep you updated.
Thanks a lot for your help!

stephenw10

If it allowed you to reinstall it certainly wasn't a storage issue at least.

jhag

FYI the 2nd upgrade attempt to 26.03.1 was successful.